Post-Race Driver Comments 2022 Canadian F1 Grand Prix

Jun.20 - The first Canadian F1 Grand Prix after three years was won for the first time by Max Verstappen yesterday. The Dutchman was under severe pressure in the last 10 laps by a strong driving Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. The Spanish driver was hunting for his first ever win in Montreal, but couldn't get passed the flawless driving Red Bull pilot.

2022 Canadian F1 podium: 1. Verstappen, 2. Sainz & 3. Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton finished third for Mercedes and scored 'only' his second 3rd place podium of the 2022 season. The Mercedes seemed to perform a lot better around the Gilles Villeneuve track. Hamilton could even keep up the pace behind the much faster Red Bull and Ferrari. He to finished only seven seconds behind Sainz.

Verstappen now leads the championship by 46 point in front his Red Bull teammate Sergio P{érez. The Mexican driver had to retire from the race already in lap 8. Verstappen's next F1 drivers' title rival Charles Leclerc started from P19, due to using extra power unit elements to try and benefit from them later this season. Leclerc still had a good race and finished on P5.

Fernando Alonso had a good chance to score his first podium for the Alpine F1 team by starting on P2. The Spanish driver could keep up quite good with the front runners, but bad luck and a technical problem made life  very difficult for the Alpine driver. Alonso finished on P7 and to make things even worse, he received a 5 sec. penalty after the race for weaving to much on the straight  He dropped to P8 to only score 2 points.

Below you can find all post-race comments the drivers gave after the 2022 Canadian F1 Grand Prix was finished.

Red Bull Racing Honda

Max Verstappen #1 - Winner (started from Pole)

Max Verstappen

“The weekend went pretty smoothly for me, and we can be happy with that. Overall the Ferraris were very quick and strong in the race. It was really exciting at the end; the last two laps were a lot of fun, I was flat-out racing and I was giving it everything I had.

The safety car towards the end of the race of course didn’t help, Carlos had fresher tyres so that made it difficult, I would have preferred to attack than defend, but luckily it worked out. Also, this year we seem to be quick on the straights so that helps a lot. The next race is Silverstone, I’m looking forward to going back to the more traditional tracks. We have to keep focused as a team and find improvements wherever we can.”

Sergio Pérez #11 - DNF (started P13)

Sergio Pérez

“We think it was a gearbox issue and I got stuck in gear unfortunately. Things were looking good, I had a good start, I was on the hard tyre and making progress. I had finally got Daniel in the McLaren out of the DRS zone and it should have been a race where I could have worked my way through the field, so it’s a big shame. I felt I had plenty of potential in my race to make up a lot of places and recover good points.

We need to keep on top of the reliability because a zero, when you are fighting for the Championship, is very painful and costly. You go into new regulations and there is always going to be new problems to face. Today hurts a lot, it has been a weekend to forget for me, so I want to forget about today and move onto Silverstone.”

Christian Horner - Team Principal and CEO

“Max was amazing today, he was under so much pressure, particularly a the end of the race, he’s been superb all weekend – every session through practice, qualifying and then the race. The Ferrari was very quick today, with the DRS zones the way they are here he couldn’t break it and Carlos was cruising up to the back of him and you could see them recharging their battery to have another go time-after-time, but Max kept his concentration really well and it was an absolutely amazing performance. It was a frustrating weekend for Checo and we think he had a suspected gearbox issue, so we’ll need to get the car back and have a look at what happened. It’s exciting to now head towards Silverstone.”

Scuderia Ferrari

Carlos Sainz #55 - 2nd (started P3)

Carlos Sainz

“That was a solid race and an intense battle with Max (Verstappen) to the line. The pace was very good during the entire race, but unfortunately we lost the lead after the last Safety Car. From there, I gave it my all to pass the Red Bull, but to overtake here you need a bit more than two or three extra tenths.

Even though I’m disappointed at not getting the win, there are many positives to take from Canada. We were the fastest on track today and I felt much better in the car, being able to push constantly throughout the race. Now we need to build momentum and carry this feeling onto the next race. Next stop, Silverstone.”

Charles Leclerc #16 - 5th (started P19)

Charles Leclerc

“I gave it my all. It never feels good to finish in P5, but considering where we started and the way that the race unfolded, it was the best result we could bring home today.

The first part of the race was quite frustrating, as we were stuck behind a DRS train, so it was all about practising patience. After our pit stop, we came back out behind another DRS train and started fighting our way back up. This part was much more fun, because I had to be quite aggressive to make it work. It was just one of those races where you had to maximise the points and that’s exactly what we did today.

I’m looking forward to Silverstone now. It’s one of my favourite circuits on the calendar and hopefully we can score some big points there.”

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport

Lewis Hamilton #44 - 3rd (started P4)

Lewis Hamilton

It’s quite overwhelming honestly, to get this third place. It’s been such a battle this year with the car as a Team, but we continue to stay vigilant, focused and never giving up. That’s something I’m so proud of and I remain inspired by my crew so thank you, to everyone who’s here in Montreal and back at the factory. The guys are the front are a little bit quick for us at the moment, I was giving it everything, but we’re getting closer. We’ve just got to keep pushing and keep pushing and hopefully we’ll be in the fight with these guys. I could just about see them in the end thanks to the Safety Car!

Honestly, our pace was quite good, particularly in the second phase of the stint. We did a lot of work, back in the simulator but also here to get the set up right. So honestly, I’m ecstatic. I think, as I said, I didn’t expect this coming into the weekend. This is my second podium of the year, and it was really special. Especially where I got my first Grand Prix win! I love it here in Montreal so big thank you to all the Canadians!

George Russell #63 - 4th (started on P8)

George Russell

I had total confidence we’d have been able to carve our way past the Haases and the Alpines. We were certainly concerned that Leclerc and Checo would be able to come through and we were fortunate enough to keep them behind us.  Ultimately our race pace was closer to Ferrari and Red Bull than we’ve seen all season, but we’ve had performance issues and they haven’t.

Everything is easier in hindsight and I probably would have liked to have pitted under the first VSC but at the end of the day, I don’t think it would have changed my finishing result. The pace was really strong in the first stint, on the second stint it was strong, and the final stint after the restart, I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get my tyres working. So that was a bit of a shame, to drop back slightly and not be in the fight. Nevertheless, P4, good points for the Team and it’s great to be back on the podium as Mercedes.

Alpine F1 Team

Esteban Ocon #31 - 6th (started P7)

Esteban Ocon

“I’m very happy with the result today to score eight points. The team did a great job with the car and the strategy and it was all well managed overall. We leave Canada with some good points for the team and a big step up in the Constructors’ Championship.

I’m glad I was able to help Fernando at the end there with DRS to keep Valtteri [Bottas] behind. There is still a lot to discuss and learn with regards to how the weekend unfolded, but the important thing is to keep this momentum going and keep delivering good performances in the next races.”

Fernando Alonso #14 - 9th (started P2)

Fernando Alonso

“I think this weekend we deserved better than ninth position, but it’s still good for both cars to score points in the end. We ultimately lost a big opportunity to fight for a potential podium as I felt like I had the pace to do so. We were hit with a badly timed VSC just before our first stop.

I was on the main straight when it was deployed, and then missed a pit-stop opportunity before it ended. We then had an engine problem from lap 20, which we were trying to manage. We didn’t retire the car and used the DRS to defend, as we were losing a lot of time on the straights. It’s disappointing especially after yesterday’s performance, but we’ll head to Silverstone, try to get on top of our reliability issues and score more points.”

Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen

Valtteri Bottas #77 - 7th (started P11)

Valtteri Bottas

“We can be pleased with today’s race, especially with the pace we have shown throughout the afternoon. It’s always good to get double points, particularly after a couple of difficult races, but the most important thing was to see that we could fight the cars around us and that we are back at the level we had at the start of the season.

My race was quite straightforward: I started on the hard tyre and then everything went perfectly for me. The timing of the Safety Car was ideal, I was like ‘happy days!’ It felt really good to be out there, and I’m happy for Zhou as well. He had strong pace and he can take a lot of confidence from this weekend.”

Zhou Guanyu #24 - 13th (started on P10)

Zhou Guanyu

“It’s been a pretty good weekend for me and for the team, and I am really happy with P8 as it’s my best finish in F1 so far. Today we did everything correctly on track and with the strategy: we got stuck behind Lance for a while, but nevertheless we had clean, fast progress over the weekend. We extracted everything we could and got the full potential out of the car, and finishing in the Top 10 after a sequence of frustrating races is a nice reward.

I obviously didn’t have much experience on this track, but we got the job done in tricky conditions yesterday and today we had strong pace: I knew that we would be able to fight for points, and we did. I am super happy for the everyone here and back at the factory, we really deserved this result for the work done and the progress achieved over the past few weeks. I’m really looking forward to continuing in this vein in the next races.”

Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team

Lance Stroll #18 - 10th (started P17)

Lance Stroll

"We had a great strategy for this race and I am super-pleased to have been able to score a point. We did a great job deciding to go long on the first set of tyres to make a one-stop race work, managing to keep a string of cars behind me. The overtake on Daniel [Ricciardo] was a nice bonus – we were on fresher tyres so it was a pretty easy move.

Things are certainly a lot more challenging this year, but I am pleased to have had a successful race today. Finally, a big thank you to all the fans for giving me such a fantastic reception all weekend – it has been incredible to race at home after such a long time away."

Sebastian Vettel #5 - 12th (started P16)

Sebastian Vettel

"It just was not our day. We made an early stop to find some clear air, but then the Virtual Safety Cars came along at the wrong time. That really compromised my race. At the end, I was on very old rubber and I tried to hang on, but it did not work out. Lance was on fresher tyres, and the team asked me to let him past to attack Daniel, which I was happy to do.

The result was frustrating – we had shown good pace this weekend and could have had a better result, but sometimes things do not go your way. Today felt like one of those days. Well done to the team for all their hard work and to Lance for scoring a point today."

McLaren F1 Team

Daniel Ricciardo #3 - 11th (started P9)

Daniel Ricciardo

"Unfortunately, not the best Sunday for us. We simply didn’t have the pace, and then had to manage a few other things as well.

That was tough, it just put us too far out of contention. So, otherwise, we’ve got to have a look, see where we can go better, and then just clean a few things up."

Lando Norris #4 - 15th (started P14)

Lando Norris

"We were unlucky today in many places, and also just didn’t have the pace to race and overtake the people we wanted to race against. It was very difficult to overtake in general and that hurt our pace. We simply couldn’t get into the positions we wanted to be in.

I think the pace wasn’t too bad, still not good enough, but not too bad, just the fact we couldn't overtake, hurt us badly today. We’ve got work to do. There were mistakes from my side, mistakes from the team’s behalf and we’ll just need to step back, refresh, go again and do a much better job in the next one."

Williams Racing

Alex Albon #23 - 13th (started P12)

Alex Albon

“Going into this weekend, we knew this track was going to be difficult and despite our good qualifying, in the first 3-4 laps I could tell it was going to be a struggle.
“I think P13 was all we could have achieved today so at face value; I am quite happy with it.

“Going into the next stint of races, hopefully, we can make these upgrades and continue to improve on this.”

NIcholas Latifi #6 - 16th (started P18)

Nicholas Latifi

“The overall experience of the weekend has been pretty special, it’s great to finally have my first home race and the support I felt from my family, friends and all the fans in the grandstands was amazing.

In terms of on track, we were lacking a lot of pace and we need to try to understand why in both high and low fuel. We have two weeks now to try and do a bit of analysis before heading to Silverstone. Regardless of the result, this weekend has been one to remember.”

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda

Pierre Gasly #10 - 14th (started P15)

Pierre Gasly

“Starting the race out of position we thought we’d go for a different strategy, so we pitted a bit earlier, but it didn’t really make much of a difference. We were struggling a lot with grip, sliding around a lot in these conditions, and we just didn’t have the pace to fight in the top 10.

We will have to analyse everything, but objectively we were just too slow in the race. Likewise, we didn’t get lucky with the Virtual Safety Car, but at the end of the day it wouldn’t have changed our end result that much. We need to use the gap now to work out what we could’ve done better, so we can arrive in Silverstone as best prepared as possible.”

Yuki Tsunoda #22 - DNF (started on P20)

Yuki Tsunoda

“I’ve already been to the garage to the apologise to all the team, I just pushed too much on pit exit and unfortunately I went into the wall. The pace was good today, and we’d made a strong recovery up until that point, even if it was hard to overtake, so I’m disappointed with that ending.”

Haas F1 Team

Kevin Magnussen #20 -  17th (started on P5)

Kevin Magnussen

“We were forced to pit with the damage we had but it was nothing. The car was perfect to drive, there was no effect on the car. This is normal, you’ve got to be able to finish the race with some scratches on your car.

We could’ve got back in, but we were forced to pit and then there was a virtual safety car and then everyone else pitted. It’s frustrating – it’s now four races or something where we haven’t scored points, so we want to get into the points again.”

Mick Schumacher #47 - DNF (started on P6)

Mick Schumacher

“We had a PU issue which is obviously very unfortunate as I think we were having a good race up until that point – the feeling of the car was great and the pace was not too bad either.

We can take away that the pace yesterday and even today was strong, so it’s all to play for in Silverstone. I feel like we built the cake but we just didn’t get to put the frosting on it.”

✅ Check out 2022 Canadian F1 Grand Prix results
✅ Check out 2022 F1 Championship Standings

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